Trivia Quiz

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1. Which of the following is an inner borough of eastern Greater London, north of the River Thames?
a) Croydon
b) Acton
c) Ealing
d) Newham

2. Who was king of Egypt from 1936 to 1952, when he abdicated?
a) Fuad
b) Assad
c) Hussein
d) Farouk

3. What is the name for a song of lamentation for the dead?
a) Elegist
b) Dirge
c) Requiem
d) Threnodist

4. In feudal Japan, what was the name for a warlord and major landowner who employed a body of samurai?
a) Mikado
b) Daimyo
c) Mogul
d) Kaiser

5. Which British crown colony was secured from the Chinese in 1898, on a 99 year lease running out in 1997?
a) Singapore
b) Taiwan
c) Taiwan
d) Hong Kong

6. Which type of food is named after a northern German city on the River Elbe?
a) Hamburger
b) Doughnut
c) Camembert
d) Spaghetti

7. Which of the following is a drama by Arthur Miller written 1953?
a) Top Girls
b) The Alchemist
c) The Crucible
d) A Doll's House

8. Which real French character, hero of a classic play, was famed for his excessively long nose?
a) Charles de Gaulle
b) Gerard Depardieu
c) Cyrano de Bergerac
d) Walter de la Mare

9. At the mouth of which river does the city of Dublin stand?
a) Tagus
b) Boyne
c) Shannon
d) Liffey

10. Which character in US folk legend wandered through the country for 40 years sowing seeds from which apple trees grew?
a) Calamity Jane
b) Johnny Appleseed
c) Billy the Kid
d) Buffalo Bill

11. What is the name of the southernmost point of England, in Cornwall?
a) Puffin Point
b) Hawk Point
c) Lizard Point
d) Toad Point

12. Who wrote the poem `The Raven` about a bird which warns `nevermore`?
a) Philip Larkin
b) Alfred Tennyson
c) Edgar Allen Poe
d) Ted Hughes

13. What part of the Arctic Ocean is situated north of the Bering Strait between Asia and North America?
a) Labrador Sea
b) Chukchi Sea
c) Bellingshausen Sea
d) Bering Sea

14. Who wrote The Alchemist?
a) Beaumont and Fletcher
b) John Webster
c) Christopher Marlowe
d) Ben Jonson

15. Which port on the Northwest coast of Cuba, is also the island's capital?
a) Havana
b) Miami
c) Port au Prince
d) Kingston

16. FIFA is the international body controlling which team sport?
a) Association Football
b) Lacrosse
c) Rugby League
d) Polo

17. What is a balatron?
a) A pomegranate tree
b) A clown
c) An ancient military catapult
d) A triangular guitar-like musical instrument

18. Which city is the capital of Benin?
a) Porto Novo
b) Lome
c) Abeokuta
d) Cotonou

19. Which county was created in 1974 when Bristol was merged with parts of south Gloucestershire and north Somerset?
a) North Gloucestershire
b) Avon
c) Stow
d) West Cotswolds

20. Who wrote the words `Ill fares the land, to hast'ning ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.`?
a) William Wordsworth
b) William Blake
c) Alexander Pope
d) Oliver Goldsmith

21. Margaret Thatcher was born in the town of Grantham. Which English county is it in?
a) Lancashire
b) Lothian
c) Leicestershire
d) Lincolnshire

22. What is the capital of Poland?
a) Wroclaw (Breslau)
b) Warsaw
c) Lódz
d) Kraków (Cracow)

23. Which model village in northwestern England was built in 1888 for workers at a Lever Brothers factory?
a) Darlington
b) Port Sunlight
c) Kedleston
d) Poundbury

24. Who wrote the words `I'm a second eleven sort of chap.`?
a) Stanley Baldwin
b) John Major
c) Michael Atherton
d) James Matthew Barrie

25. The western part of the island of Hispaniola is called Haiti. What is the eastern part called?
a) Dominican Republic
b) Barbados
c) Martinique
d) Guadeloupe

26. Into which stretch of water does the Mississippi River flow?
a) Atlantic Ocean
b) Gulf of Mexico
c) Pacific Ocean
d) Caribbean Sea

27. Which famous bridge spans the entrance to San Francisco Bay?
a) Brooklyn Bridge
b) Manhattan Bridge
c) Golden Gate Bridge
d) London Bridge

28. Who wrote the words `A man can be destroyed but not defeated.`?
a) Ernest Hemingway
b) Henrik Ibsen
c) Jack London
d) Richard M Nixon

29. Which Irish dramatist was an unsuccessful advocate of spelling reform?
a) J M Synge
b) Samuel Beckett
c) W B Yeats
d) George Bernard Shaw

30. Which is the largest lake in the British Isles?
a) Derwentwater
b) Lough Neagh
c) Loch Ness
d) Lake Windermere

31. Who said, on the day he died, `So little done, so much to do.`?
a) Cecil Rhodes
b) Jan Smuts
c) William Pitt the Younger
d) Isaac Newton

32. Who wrote Animal Farm?
a) Arthur C Clarke
b) Walt Disney
c) George Orwell
d) Rudyard Kipling

33. What is the capital of the United Arab Emirates?
a) Sharjah
b) Dubai
c) Abu Dhabi
d) Ras al-Khaimah

34. What is another name for the Western or Gregorian calendar which was introduced in 1582?
a) New Style
b) Chinese Calendar
c) Old Style
d) Julian Calendar

35. What was the term for any underground shelter for troops in World War I?
a) Basement
b) Trench
c) Bomb shelter
d) Dug-out

36. In which Middle-Eastern town was the Church of the Nativity built over a grotto said to be the birthplace of Jesus?
a) Mecca
b) Bethlehem
c) Medina
d) Nazareth

37. In which country are there four official languages, German, Italian, French and Romansch?
a) Switzerland
b) Canada
c) Algeria
d) Austria

38. It was the adopted home of writer Robert Louis Stevenson and its capital city is Apia. Which island nation is this?
a) Fiji Islands
b) Kiribati
c) Tonga
d) Western Samoa

39. Which Scottish city is nicknamed `Auld Reekie` from the thick low-lying clouds that used to hang over it?
a) Glasgow
b) Perth
c) Edinburgh
d) Dundee

40. Which of the following was a province of Spain's empire in the New World?
a) Guyana
b) New Granada
c) New Spain
d) New Madrid

There are 40 questions, you have one minute to answer each one.